>>34242492
> Pick a location (locations will be listed if this is picked)
gives us something to do while the jammer is taken care of

>>34242492
>> Pick a location (locations will be listed if this is picked)

>>34242492
>Pick a location (locations will be listed if this is picked)

writan'

"No use sitting around up here, what are the possible locations?"
Matilda looks up at you, then begins to list them off.
"Main locations are the SinoViet centre, the hospital, the Vyrant Telecom building, hell, he could even be over at ONI headquarters in Olympic Tower. Or, we could just pick any of these standing buildings and be just as likely to find the guy."

> SinoViet Centre
> Vyrant Telecom tower
> Olympic Tower
> The Hospital
> Just start picking buildings

>>34242819
>> SinoViet Centre
let's start here

>>34242819
What do we know about this guy? What's his file say are his specialties and duties?

>>34242819
> The Hospital

>>34242819
>> SinoViet Centre

Writin'

You shrug at her, before picking one of the options. "SinoViet centre, then."
"Penny?" Matilda asks.
"Already on it," she replies.
The Pelican doesn't take long to reach the SinoViet building. Penny hovers over the landing pad, where another Pelican had already taken up the space.

"We should be within range for the jamming not to affect our open comms," Matilda says. "Try contacting them on the global channel."
"I'll do it," says Jacobson. He clears his throat, then switches channels. "UNSC troops in the SinoViet centre, this is Sergeant Jacobson of ACRE team."
The reply comes, an inquisitive tone in the voice. "Uh, this is Army unit 7 Delta 9, Acre team. We're receiving, what do you want?"
"They're Army," says Levern 'Lancer' Kendrick. "They won't know him."
"It's worth a shot anyway," says Matilda, before nodding at Jacobson to continue.
"7 Delta 9, do you got an ODST down there named Eddie Buck?"
"Sorry Acre, he's not down here."
"Any chance you know where we could find him?"
"Haven't seen any ODSTs all day, unfortunately," replies 7 Delta 9. "Sorry dude, we're army. Wouldn't know where any of the squids went, they're probably all off-planet by now."
Jacobson looks up and shrugs. Matilda gestures to wrap it up. "Thanks anyway, 7 Delta 9. You keep up the work, and good luck."
"You too, Acre. Good luck, hope you find your guy before the Covies do."

1/2

Penny pulls the pelican away. "Where to next?"
"I'll send an inquiry to dispatch asking for current ODST deployments in the area," says Matilda. "Mightn't get through the jamming, but it's worth a shot." She taps away at her wrist computer, before hesitating. "Hang on, just got a communique. 'We know who you're looking for. Meet us at the Hospital.'" Matilda pauses, before tapping out a few keys. "Hospital just got cleared out of Covies, our guy might be there. But the message I got was from an anonymous source and the signal was bounced around before I got it. No idea where or who it came from."

You exchange looks with the squad. Moana just shrugs, same with Erika. Jacobson looks concerned.
Kendrick seems to miss the point, though. "So, what's the matter? That's our guy, isn't it? With all the jamming going on, how would we know where it came from anyway?"
Matilda nods. "It could be the jamming, yeah. I've seen stranger in my time."

> Let's do it. It's the best lead we got.
> Sounds too fishy, let's try somewhere else.

>>34243612
>> Let's do it. It's the best lead we got.

>>34243612
> Sounds too fishy but it's the best lead we got, let's do it.
itsatrap.jpg

>>34243612
on second thought, yeah, going with the second option. it is pretty fishy.

>>34243612
Let's try the Telecom tower

>>34243612
>> Let's do it. It's the best lead we got.

Writing

bump?

"As fishy as this sounds," you begin, "it's our only lead right now. We could spend all night looking for our guy and not find him, and that's just asking for covies to shoot us down. Let's at least check it out."
"Agreed," says Penny. "We'll do a fly over, at least. Try and get comms going with whoever's down there."
You get nods of assent from the two marines, and from the ODSTs. Matilda sighs, but nods as well. "We're all in agreement back here. Let's get to it."

Penny crosses the city, the pelican lit by the fires below, and the smoke tinged sunset. As you watch, another battlecruiser settles over the city in the distance. Even over the roar of the pelican's engines, you can hear the high pitched whine of the plasma weapon charging, before a beam of light and fire spears out from the bottom the the spacecraft, turning the city below it into glass.

It's not your first glassing, but it's the first one you've seen up close.

The pelican reaches the New Alexandria hospital in due time, making a single pass over the building. It looks clear from up here, at least on the outside.
Matilda signals over the comm. "This is Spartant G303 Matilda of Acre team to UNSC forces at New Alexandria hospital. Anyone read?"
"Hey, we read you Acre. You're looking for Buck, right?"
"Yeah, that's us," Matilda replies.
"We're sort of an unofficial unit down here. Couple of ODSTs with us, Marines. We got grouped together, haven't been able to find our units. Probably won't either."
"So you got Buck down there? What's your name?"
"Oscar Winfield, Corporal, ODST. Yeah, we got Buck down here. Building ain't secure, though, covies are creepin' around the place, ambushing us. You're gonna have to meet us half-way."

"What do you think? Still too fishy?" Matilda asks you and the squad.

> Let's land and meet these guys
> Call it off. If they do have Buck, well, we don't really need an extra here. If they don't and this is a trap, then I'd rather not we walk right into it

>>34244853
>> Let's land and meet these guys

>>34244853
First see if they can pull up Buck to speak with us.

>>34244853
>> Let's land and meet these guys
but keep Penny and lavern in the air ready to cover us

Writing

Sorry, half falling asleep here. Got myself some coffee, am continuing.

"We'll get down there and meet them, but I think Penny should stay in the air and give us cover if we need it."
"Agreed," says Matilda. "Penny?"
"Roger that. I'll drop you guys off, get back in the air for cover."
The Pelican loses altitude, dropping towards the landing pad on the hospital roof. The landing legs kiss concrete, and the six of you pile out, weapons ready but yet to be aimed.

Matilda contacts the ODSTs as you enter the interior. "Where do we meet you guys?"
"When you enter the foyer, get to the bottom level and enter the doorway ahead of you. There's be a decorative corridor leading to the main wards, remains of a jammer at the end. We'll meet you there."
"Roger," says Matilda. "Any chance you can put Buck on the line?"
You hear echoing gunshots and plasma fire. "Sorry! We just got contact! It'll have to wait!"
"Convenient," Matilda mutters under her breath.

"Come on," she says after a moment. "Those of you with VISR, we got building layout maps. Let's head down these stairs."
They're less stairs and more ramps. It is a a hospital, after all. Depressingly, you see a bloodstained wheelchair at the bottom of one of these ramps. The occupant is nowhere to be found, but in their place are numerous corpses of various aliens.
No human remains, yet, and that you're thankful for. You've seen enough dead comrades on this planet.

1/2 (this is a long one)

You cross into the described corridor. The ceiling and walls are glass, allowing you a view of the skyline, or what's left of it. Along the corridor, you see fountains and water features - as well as more dead aliens. Jetpack wearing elites and at least two packs of brutes. Yet again, no human corpses. Whoever came through here must have really cleaned out.

You see the destroyed jammer at the other end of the decorative corridor. No ODSTs in sight.
Matilda gets on the comm. "Hey, uh, Winfield? We're at the jammer, no sight of your guys. ETA?"
You get no response.
Matilda tries again. "Corporal Winfield? What's your status?"
Nothing.
"No shooting either," says Erika. She's right, you can't hear the sounds of a firefight.

"Corporal-" Matilda suddenly tenses, gun up and finger on the trigger. You hear the sound of boots rushing into the room, and at either end stream in no less than forty ODSTs, their armour jet black and their visors impassive. One of them you recognise.

Captain Oliver Rowland, of the 10th Battalion.

"Nice to see you all again. Major General MacNiel sends his regards."
"What the hell are you doing here? What's with all the muscle? Where's Buck?" Matilda fires off all these questions without changing her stance, her rifle aimed directly at Captain Rowland.
"Snappy, aren't you?" Rowland says. "Our friend Buck isn't here. He got evacuated hours ago, probably half-way to Earth by now. As for the others, well, we're here to detain all of you for treason, and to eliminate you if you resist. Such a waste of talent though, too bad you resisted."
The ODSTs around you raise and cock their rifles.
The six of you tense up and ready your own rifles.
"What the fuck, what the fuck," you hear Levern muttering under his breath.

2/3

>>34246355
What weapons are by the corpses and how many grenades do we have?

>>34246355
sigh...

"I'll give you the chance to surrender, marines, Levern, Moana," says Rowland. "That Rookie, and the Spartan, they're not coming with us. Have to make sure we send a message to their kind."
"What the fuck is this, captain?" says Kendrick. I know you like me and all, but this is going way too far."
"Major's orders," replies Rowland. "Never liked Captain Becker either. Dumb spooky bitch."
There's a pause, as you stand off against forty of your own kind.
"Well, are you going to surrender, or are we going to have to shoot you all?"
"I'm not surrendering until I get an actual FUCKING explanation, Captain," says Kendrick. "You shitpissing asshole. What the fuck is up with you, I thought you were above this shit."
"Temper, Lancer," replies Rowland. he doesn't say anything else, and nobody moves. "So that's how it is, then? Fine."

And then you hear the chain gun and the whine of damaged engines. A pelican.
You look up and behind, through the ceiling, where a burning pelican is on crash course with the building. It smashes through the glass, crashing into the ODSTs and making way for you to escape, out the back. Escape that should be possible, unless that's-
"Penny!" yells Matilda, the anguish clear in her voice.
And a second pelican flies overheard, as Penny replies. "Some bastard thought he could shoot ME down! Can you believe the nerve?" He pelican is smoking in one engine, but appears to be flying well enough.

"God damnit!" says Rowland. "Troopers, fire!"
And all hell breaks loose. The six of you and a pelican against twenty ODSTs.

> Shoot to kill
> Shoot to wound/neutralise
> Covering fire to escape
> Surrender

>>34246456
>>34246456
>> Shoot to wound/neutralise
but put a bullet in that treasonous cunt Rowlands face

>>34246456
>> Shoot to kill
except Rowland
I want him alive so we can light him on fire and kick him out a window

>>34246456
>Spam grenades at the ODSTs
>Get Lancer to shoot down that Pelican
>Get to your Pelican

>>34246479
why? the only one here who deserves to die is him, the rest are just following retarded illegal orders, they are better used fighting THE ACTUAL FUCKING ENEMIES WE ARE AT WAR WITH AND NOT FOLLOWING THE ORDERS OF SOME FUCKTARD WHOSE PANTIES ARE IN A TWIST

fuck this retarded cunt, only treason here is what he's doing

>>34246512
fair enough, shoot to incapacitate

>>34246505
That pelican already crashed anon...

>>34246479
As much as I like defenestration, that's retarded as fuck. Not surprising coming from a namefag.

>>34246531
Yeah, I misinterpreted the second Pelican to be an enemy one.

>>34246456
>Shoot to wound/neutralise

Writing

Well, with odds like this, maybe you should've expected casualties.
You shouldn't be alive.

The ODSTs opened fire. Twenty of your own kind, shooting at you. People. Humans. Being ordered by some corrupt asshole who was being ordered by an even more corrupt asshole who had some sort of grudge for your commanding Admiral.
For some reason, you shouted not to kill those ODSTs. Shoot to wound, you said. Shoot to wound, when your enemies were shooting to kill.
Fuck. Just fuck. Your mission was going so well, Covenant invasion aside.

You used your battle rifle efficiently, aiming for legs, arms and shoulders. Aiming to neutralise, not outright kill. But that bastard Rowland, you wanted him dead. You never got the chance.

The firefight was a blur. Your brain was on autopilot, firing, firing, single rounds. Wound, not kill. You took down seven of them before they took you down. Before you knew it, a round hit your shoulder, knocking you down. It didn't penetrate, hitting your shoulder pauldron, but it put you out of the fight long enough for it to be over before you got up.

When you surveyed the aftermath, you couldn't help but wonder what the fuck led to this.

1/2

Of the twenty or so ODSTs that faced you off, only around ten remained. The rest had scattered, fallen back, leaving their wounded behind, Rowland included. Cowards. The only person still standing in the room was your Spartan, her shields sparking, her armour dinged, and blood pooling at her feet. Her arms were by her side, her rifle hanging loosely. As you watched, she pulled a canister of biofoam from her belt and inserted it into a nozzle, before spraying. The bleeding stopped. Then she limped towards your brief enemies.

You look to your right, to check on the rest of your squad. Of course it wouldn't have ended without casualties.

Jacobson lies face down, a pool of blood around his head. Moana, who is unhurt, is tending to Erika, spraying biofoam into a wound in her chest. That done, he lets her up. She sits up, holding her side and coughing.
"Easy," says your medic. "It's not fatal, but it can be." He looks up at you, then down at Jacobson. He looks back at you, and you don't need to see his eyes to know that grim look.

Behind Moana, Kendrick is on his hands and knees, helmet off. He seems to have a wound to his arm, and he holds it to himself, his other hand on the ground and clenched into a fist. He swears loudly, punching the ground. He's trying, and failing, to hold back tears. "Damnit Captain, I thought..."

Moana looks at you. "You alright?"
"Fine," you reply. "Didn't even get through the armour."
Moana nods, turning to Kendrick. Kendrick tries to shrug him off, but the medic insists, and Kendrick breaks down.

Penny stands by the ODSTs, nudging one with a boot, who groans.

> Check the ODSTs
> Don't bother, call for medevac

>>34246886
>> Check the ODSTs

>>34246886
>> Check the ODSTs

>>34246886
>> Don't bother, call for medevac

Writing

It's with a sigh that you stand up to check on your enemies. The ones that shot you, shot Erika and Matilda and Kendrick.
And killed Jacobson.

...why do you care if they're alright or not?

You walk over. Your shoulder is fine, somewhat. Feels like you had a brute punch you, but it's not bleeding or broken. You'll get one hell of a bruise though.

The ODSTs have begun to groan and move. Two don't. Both have bullet holes shattering their visors, and blood leaking through the cracks. They'll never get up again.

The remaining nine are fine. Flesh wounds, broken bones on some. Nothing fatal. You resist the urge to kick one, who groaned out "traitorous fuck". You'd spit on him, but your helmet is still on.

Yeah, these nine will live. You wonder where the Captain and the others went. You ask, getting a curse in return.

Well, it doesn't really matter right now. You'll get that bastard another day. Maybe he'll never make it off planet, and burn with it. One can hope.

Moana walks up behind you. He surveys the wounded. "They'll live. Long enough for medevac to arrive, anyway. Care to do the honours?"

> ...Yeah, I'll do it.
> No, fuck them, they can call their own medevac.

>>34247243
>> ...Yeah, I'll do it.
High road.

>>34247243
>> ...Yeah, I'll do it.

>>34247243
> ...Yeah, I'll do it.
And report Rowland and his treasonous actions, he's now got the blood of humans on his hands.

>>34247259
>>34247252
This.

Writing

>>34246153
>>34246355
>>34246456
>>34246862
>>34246886
>>34247243
Someone want to tell this anon what the fuck the point of this entire thread was?

We're never going to get off of reach for fucks sake, why the fuck can't we just get the fuck on with our job for fucking once?

Well this threads getting a downvote, your worst so far OP, good luck cleaning up this mess, I though we were done with this retard and could get on with the quest, so much for that...

no fuck it I'm done

>>34247601
Dude what?

What's going on?

>>34247577
Good job, Vaelys, your backseat QMing once again shits up a thread.

>>34247631
That ain't me anon, last post I made was >>34247286 I'm just as confused as >>34247623

...the fuck

>>34247601
err wut

whats happening?

I really hope this quest ain't going to die because of one bad thread

come back FF

>>34247577
>Well this threads getting a downvote

This is the pettiest goddamned shit I have ever seen someone post in a thread.

>>34247601
Volendruze Quest when?

>>34247577
The entire point of this thread, like most threads, baring only the intentional troll OP, and even then not always, was to have fun. If you are not having fun in a thread on 4chan, you should go find the little x and close the tab. its really that easy to stop not having fun, no need to shit in someone else's fun on the way out, thank you very much.

>>34247601
I'll be honest with you, if I were a QM and half my player base was tripfags I would probably have quit a lot sooner.

So kudos for making it this far, I'll look out for any new quests you plan on running.

>>34247639
I hope you and >>34247577 are proud of yourselves.

>>34247730
well only one trip/namefag in this quest is terrible, and that wrenloft, but he's harmless

I really don't want to see this quest die because of one outburst and the QM imploding, its been a very long time since there was a Halo quest, and this one is actually well written and damn fun, however short the threads are, they always make me want more and remember to check for the next thread time

I hope FF comes back

I've been dealing with depression for a few years now. Right now I'm going through a low point.

If I feel better in a few months I'll look at picking this back up. Might run something different.

If anyone wants to archive this thread they're free to. I don't think I'll bother though.

Thanks and apologies to everyone.

>>34247777
Nice quads.

Just run something other than Halo. If it's getting boring mix it up a little. QMs don't need to be tied to one quest.

>>34247777
sorry to hear that OP but please don't kill this because of one or two anons, I'm fucking loving this and so are the other players here, they wouldn't be if they didn't

don't let a few grumpy anons get you down or discourage you, keep on questing because I can see how much you enjoy this quest, you wouldn't have stuck through the low numbers and slow start it had if you didn't

please don't kill it or put it off that long, push on through and keep having fun with us

>>34247577
>We're never going to get off of reach for fucks sake, why the fuck can't we just get the fuck on with our job for fucking once?

Jesus christ you monstrous piece of shit, you couldn't even wait for more story posts before whining about this

>>34247777
>If I feel better in a few months I'll look at picking this back up.
:(

Goddamnit this was an awesome quest.

I hope you rethink things and continue next week OP, go get some rest you glorious bastard, you've been running for 6 hours and you deserve it, but please don't kill the quest because of one thread.

>>34247837
I don't want to go into personal shit, but today was simply the drop of water that made the dam overflow.

I have a lot of personal shit to deal with.

>>34247973
That sucks and is understandable OP, though I hope you can keep running this and that hopefully running the quest and us playing it with you can somewhat brighten you day and help alleviate that dam.

I hope things get better for you OP, and I hope to see you having fun with us running this again soon, take care bro.

I just woke up and am usually asleep when threads run and I catch up via the archives but I thought I'd pop in and say, FF, I really enjoy this quest and I hope things improve for you and you feel better very soon. I hope to see you running this next week and I'm sorry I can't make the threads live.